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2 Posts
Hello, everyone!
This is my first year with bees and I started out with a TBH. I've made a lot of mistakes so far but nothing that I couldn't correct. My bees have been pretty tolerant of my ignorance. I've been studying and reading what I can to try and learn as much as possible, but sometimes it's overwhelming.
My current question is this: It's late July here in Michigan and my TBH is nearly full! Is this OK or normal? I checked today and they are drawing comb on the last bar (just a tiny comb right now). The second one in is about half built. The third one in is fully built and filling with honey. I didn't remove that one because it was so warm out already and the wax seemed pretty fragile; I didn't want to break it due to weight. But I know from last week's check that the next two in are also honey comb. That gives me at least five bars of honey, and from there farther in is kind of a mix of honey and brood.
I'm not sure what to do now. Do I clear off a bar or two for them? Do I leave them alone? I don't have another hive ready so I can't make a split quickly (that's one of those mistakes I mentioned earlier - not having a spare!) The weather this past year has been so strange and unpredictable that I am very afraid of not leaving enough food for winter, and everything I've read says don't harvest from a first year hive.
We built one of the smaller hives as well. I'm not sure it's a "golden mean", but it's only 36 inches. I'm definitely building two four-footers this winter and transferring the bees come spring!
Thank you for your insight!
This is my first year with bees and I started out with a TBH. I've made a lot of mistakes so far but nothing that I couldn't correct. My bees have been pretty tolerant of my ignorance. I've been studying and reading what I can to try and learn as much as possible, but sometimes it's overwhelming.
My current question is this: It's late July here in Michigan and my TBH is nearly full! Is this OK or normal? I checked today and they are drawing comb on the last bar (just a tiny comb right now). The second one in is about half built. The third one in is fully built and filling with honey. I didn't remove that one because it was so warm out already and the wax seemed pretty fragile; I didn't want to break it due to weight. But I know from last week's check that the next two in are also honey comb. That gives me at least five bars of honey, and from there farther in is kind of a mix of honey and brood.
I'm not sure what to do now. Do I clear off a bar or two for them? Do I leave them alone? I don't have another hive ready so I can't make a split quickly (that's one of those mistakes I mentioned earlier - not having a spare!) The weather this past year has been so strange and unpredictable that I am very afraid of not leaving enough food for winter, and everything I've read says don't harvest from a first year hive.
We built one of the smaller hives as well. I'm not sure it's a "golden mean", but it's only 36 inches. I'm definitely building two four-footers this winter and transferring the bees come spring!
Thank you for your insight!